Content

The evolved help desk

T
he traditional help desk is ill-prepared to keep pace with business demands posed by an expanding regulatory climate. In this harried environment, midmarket CIOs need to manage the dual tasks of delivering business value and strategic services that satisfy their users.

The help desk, once seen as a necessary evil, has been recast as a service desk with a best practices mindset. The next key milestone is further evolution of the service desk to service management, so that IT becomes more relevant to the organization and directly aligned to the challenges facing the CEO.

The help desk is often seen as the face of the IT organization, so any drop in credibility can bring negative consequences to IT's future, including tighter budgets, longer approval cycles and a reluctance to involve IT in driving business change. However, IT professionals and executive management can help the help desk evolve to meet their business needs and to overhaul negative opinions.  

For example, if customer satisfaction is low, determining why is helpful. Following that, the next step is to set goals so that metrics can be tracked, which means pulling in best practices to improve customer satisfaction and call resolution times.

In addition to these steps, consolidating IT, HR and other functions into one service management platform with one phone number increases the productivity of the service desk. It allows for direct routing of problems to the appropriate organization in a timely manner.  

A key point to keep in mind during the entire transformation process is that it will be a continuous and gradual improvement.

Get daily email updates

SC Media's daily must-read of the most current and pressing daily news

By clicking the Subscribe button below, you agree to SC Media Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.